Pakistan thwarts India’s attempts to blacklist it at FATF

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has once again thwarted India’s attempts to blacklist it at the Financial Task Force (FATF) but danger still remains.

Black clouds still hover over Pakistan after the country managed to thwart New Delhi’s attempts to place it on the blacklist of the FATF.

Pakistan has been on the global money laundering watchdog’s radar since June 2018 when it was placed on the grey list of the FATF. The UK, USA and India has moved for Pakistan to be pushed on the blacklist but only Turkey had opposed the attempt. Pakistan’s close ally, China, had abstained.

Pakistan was placed on the grey list of the FATF for terrorist financing and money laundering risks after an assessment of the country’s financial system and security mechanism.

However, aggressive diplomacy on part of Islamabad secured the help of three member states of the FATF–China, Malaysia and Turkey–for Pakistan’s cause.

A foreign office official confirmed the developments that took place at the five-day meeting of the FATF’s Plenary and Working Group meeting in Orlando. While announcing that India’s threat had been thwarted, he admitted that ‘the danger was not over’.

The FATF will formally announces its decision regarding Pakistan on October during its Plenary.

While the FATF agreed in February this year that Pakistan had made progress, it said that Islamabad still had to meet targets and further improve. The FATF said that it still sought dissuasive sanctions” and “effective prosecution” from Pakistan.

While Islamabad required only three votes to thwart attempts to place it on the blacklist, it needs 15 out of 36 votes to get out of the grey list.